WhatsApp brings special accounts for kids with less features, more security

Meta's renowned messaging service WhatsApp is reportedly working on special accounts for children, enabling parents to let their children use WhatsApp with restricted features.

The impending separate WhatsApp accounts for kids are coming to enhance online safety. These child accounts will have default privacy settings that limit interactions with unknown contacts.

According to WABetaInfo, the secondary account will also give parents insights into their child's activity, such as when a new contact contacts or is contacted. This is to maintain end-to-end encryption to ensure content remains private.

WhatsApp's latest feature for children is designed to make parents stress less about their kids' online activities, allowing them to monitor them without compromising the security of their messages.

How to set up a child account on WhatsApp

To set up a child account on WhatsApp, parents will need to scan a QR code after the welcome screen to link their account. Then they will need to set up a 6-digit primary PIN to manage certain settings and prevent unauthorised changes. The child's secondary account will require this PIN to complete the setup process.

This adds an extra layer of security and ensures that children can't make changes without parental consent.

Child accounts will have limited features, and kids won't be able to share content publicly, access channels, or hide chats.

It must be noted that the feature is still in the development phase and will be released to all users in a future update.